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This summer, TEDTalks passed a landmark 500 million views in 5 years online—not surprising, seeing as how people travel from all corners of the world for the chance to sit in the audience of the annual TED Global Conference in Palm Springs and take in a consistently inspiring roster of speakers.

Today, appropriately sustaining its reputation as a beacon of innovation and creativity, TED announced the launch of the TEDTalks iPhone App, extending the organization's reach even further.

"What we’ve noticed in the last year is that mobile has become an increasing online venue,” Director of TED Media, June Cohen, told Mashable. The organization first began its mobile foray with an iPad app that's been downloaded 1.9 million times since the October release.

As you'd expect, users can watch videos—up to the Talks' full 18 minutes long—but they can also switch off the visuals, multitask on their phone and go audio-only.

Better yet, drop those hands and supplement your commute or walk around the block with audio from TED Radio, a 24/7 streaming curation of over 900 TEDTalks. Consider it the most progressive radio station you'd ever find on the dial.

This easy access to interesting global ideas is enough to keep our minds off of the traffic we're sitting in or the treadmill we're running on (and the TED team would surely appreciate such bilateral brain work).

Will you be listening?

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Be sure to keep up with TEDxAustin and look for details on how to participate in the upcoming February conference. Check out a Q&A with TED's lead developer here.